Taxed so heavily on Xmas OT/public holiday pay, is it worth it?

LegacyUser

Hi all. going anon for this. This is going to be confusing so I'm hoping somebody here is good at maths.

Basically I was looking at my payslip and am pretty disgusted at how much I got taxed for working over the xmas period.

It was extremely busy over the two week xmas period.
I was asked to work the Saturday and Sunday before xmas, and also Christmas Day and Stephens day.
Lovely, double time for 3 of those days. I thought I'd be making a nice bit extra on top of my basic pay would make it worth it.

In total I worked 84 hours over two weeks

Basic pay: 1237.56
OT pay Double time: 95.20 for 3 hours
OT pay t+1/2: 68.18 for 3 hours.
Public holiday pay: 301.46 for 19 hours
Sunday pay: 174.53 for 11 hours
Untaxed subsidary for no breaks: 135.58 (this is not an xmas bonus)

Basic pay: 1,237.56
Gross pay: 2025.86
Deductions: 586.76 (tax, prsi, asc/prd, usc, and pension + €40 to the credit union)
Net pay: 1,439.10

So excluding the untaxed subsidary of 135.58: for working the extra days over xmas I only got an extra €65.

I'm not really sure if I'm making heads or tails of this right.
Wtf was the point?

GalwayGrrrrrl

Did the overtime push you into the next tax bracket?

would need to see normal nett etc vs the figures for the OT week

if youve paid higher tax based on income in any one exceptional pay packet you might be well advised to look at a P21 at some stage

kennethrhcp

if I'm reading your OP right... you've mistaken basic pay for net take home pay?

your basic pay line is still a gross amount that needs to have tax/deductions deducted before you can compare how much you actually earned more (in take home pay) than if you didn't have the OT.

So if your normal basic pay is €1,237.56, how much is deducted for tax, prsi, asc/prd, usc, and pension + €40 to the credit union?

Seve OB

isitworth wrote: »

Hi all. going anon for this. This is going to be confusing so I'm hoping somebody here is good at maths.

Basically I was looking at my payslip and am pretty disgusted at how much I got taxed for working over the xmas period.

It was extremely busy over the two week xmas period.
I was asked to work the Saturday and Sunday before xmas, and also Christmas Day and Stephens day.
Lovely, double time for 3 of those days. I thought I'd be making a nice bit extra on top of my basic pay would make it worth it.

In total I worked 84 hours over two weeks

Basic pay: 1237.56
OT pay Double time: 95.20 for 3 hours
OT pay t+1/2: 68.18 for 3 hours.
Public holiday pay: 301.46 for 19 hours
Sunday pay: 174.53 for 11 hours
Untaxed subsidary for no breaks: 135.58 (this is not an xmas bonus)

Basic pay: 1,237.56
Gross pay: 2025.86
Deductions: 586.76 (tax, prsi, asc/prd, usc, and pension + €40 to the credit union)
Net pay: 1,439.10

So excluding the untaxed subsidary of 135.58: for working the extra days over xmas I only got an extra €65.

I'm not really sure if I'm making heads or tails of this right.
Wtf was the point?

i don't think you make sense here

i read you got gross pay of €2,025.86 and took home €1,439.10. that is not bad in fairness

anyway, even if im reading it wrong, we would need more details to comment properly. were you paid all this in 2020 or 2019? will you continue the same volume of pay in next periods? and anyway at the end of the day, if you work more, you take home more.

ted1

84 over two weeks isn’t extremely hard, most do 80. As standard

aaakev

ted1 wrote: »

84 over two weeks isn’t extremely hard, most do 80. As standard

I'm guessing the OP works part time?

sdanseo

Your tax is calculated annually, so request a balancing statement in MyAccount and if over the full 12 months of 2019 you overpaid, you will get a refund or increased tax credit this year.

If I got off with working 84 hours over a fortnight like that I'd be happy (and salaried, so would get nothing extra which is a joke)

The practice of "Untaxed subsidary for no breaks" sounds illegal. You are entitled to breaks and are not allowed to waive them. Whatever about occasionally working through, to be paid in recognition of it, while admirable that they do it, is your employer wilfully admitting to overworking you.

Seve OB

sdanseo wrote: »

Your tax is calculated annually, so request a balancing statement in MyAccount and if over the full 12 months of 2019 you overpaid, you will get a refund or increased tax credit this year.

If I got off with working 84 hours over a fortnight like that I'd be happy (and salaried, so would get nothing extra which is a joke)

The practice of "Untaxed subsidary for no breaks" sounds illegal. You are entitled to breaks and are not allowed to waive them. Whatever about occasionally working through, to be paid in recognition of it, while admirable that they do it, is your employer wilfully admitting to overworking you.

Agree

Del2005

If you are paying the higher rate of tax OT isn't worth it as the government makes more than you, that's why I avoid OT.

hickory

I am guessing you work part time and may have only started working midway through year.you may have been paying no tax to date and have been using tax credits. However that was going to change at some point during the year so it may have been even without overtime you would have started being taxed on normal amounts. If this is not the case then it doesnt make sense. You should come out with more than 65 euro up paycheck to paycheck

LegacyUser

apologies for late reply to this.

ted1 wrote: »

84 over two weeks isn’t extremely hard, most do 80. As standard

Not sure what that has to do with my post though. I never said it was extremely hard, just extremely busy. I know 84 over two weeks is fairly standard. I'm PS worker, ambulance service.
The difference with my job is work days are generally 12 hours with late finishes and over-runs.

Seve OB wrote: »

i don't think you make sense here

i read you got gross pay of €2,025.86 and took home €1,439.10. that is not bad in fairness

anyway, even if im reading it wrong, we would need more details to comment properly. were you paid all this in 2020 or 2019? will you continue the same volume of pay in next periods? and anyway at the end of the day, if you work more, you take home more.

Yeah I left out a lot. It's a bit confusing to me. So here's my payslip of you can make head or tails of it a bit better. (if i'm allowed to post it?)

https://i.imgur.com/9jPDFZB.png

sdanseo wrote: »

The practice of "Untaxed subsidary for no breaks" sounds illegal. You are entitled to breaks and are not allowed to waive them. Whatever about occasionally working through, to be paid in recognition of it, while admirable that they do it, is your employer wilfully admitting to overworking you.

Sorry I phrased this a bit confusing. It's not technically for "no breaks". what it is is when we leave our base area for 5 hours or more we get a €15.41 subsidiary for not being at the station. If we're out of the base for 10 hours we get €36.97.

Its essentially to cover meals because when we're on the road for 5-10 hours without stopping we have to rely on eating in the vehicle or at petrol stations, or while standing in A&E etc.

Unfortunately most of us rely on it to top up our basic rate because it's so poor and besides we're on the road all day and being able to get an actual break in this job is well....another issue.

hickory wrote: »

I am guessing you work part time and may have only started working midway through year.you may have been paying no tax to date and have been using tax credits. However that was going to change at some point during the year so it may have been even without overtime you would have started being taxed on normal amounts. If this is not the case then it doesnt make sense. You should come out with more than 65 euro up paycheck to paycheck

No I work full time for several years now with the ambulance service, HSE.

Del2005 wrote: »

If you are paying the higher rate of tax OT isn't worth it as the government makes more than you, that's why I avoid OT.

Yeah I've always felt like doing the OT is honestly not worth it but sometimes I have no say and as one poster said, at the end of the day it is more take home pay, but when I put it into hourly rate it seems to be a piss take.

I find how tax works etc confusing so looking for more clarity hence why I made this post.

Lux23

I get time in lieu instead of overtime, I would get taxed too much and the extra time off is so much better for my health and well-being.

sdanseo

Your pay in those 2 weeks was the equivalent of 52,672.36‬ per year. (your gross x 26)
So you have been taxed accordingly.

This may well even out over the next couple of "normal" pay cycles.. I've had that happen and ended up paying less than normal tax over the following weeks (when I was not paid monthly, sadly a thing of the past)
Keep an eye on the cumlulative - YTD figures.
If not, request a balancing statement from Revenue.

Not much more to it really, it looks like a perfectly regular payslip.

Seve OB

As I suspected.
It’s because you are being paid in week 1 2020 so because you earned more than you normally would you hit the higher band quite quickly.
I bet next period if you don’t have as much earnings, it will even itself out.

qxtasybe1nwfh2

Seve OB wrote: »

As I suspected.
It’s because you are being paid in week 1 2020 so because you earned more than you normally would you hit the higher band quite quickly.
I bet next period if you don’t have as much earnings, it will even itself out.

Agree with this too. You are being taxed on a cumulative basis so it should work itself out over the next few weeks. (If this pay is higher than your usual)

fineso.mom

Wish I hadnt read this thread.. I just did the p21 thing and it says I underpaid by 112euro ðŸ™

Kewreeuss

The pay date was 9th, so it is the first payment in 2020. It also looks like you are paid fortnightly.
Being the first payment of the year, you only have the benefit of one period's credit and cut off. you have a single person's allowances, this means that anything you earn over 1357 is taxed at 40%.
You have been unlucky that the first payslips of the year includes the overtime and public holiday payments, so you don't get the instant gratification of the higher net pay.
However, if your earnings come in even 50 under 1357 over the next pay periods, the cumulative effects of the credit/cutoff point will kick in and you will get back the tax you paid at 40%.
Watch your payslip each week, compare your gross pay to the cutoff point, at the bottom of the payslip
if your gross is less than the cutoff point you will not be paying 40%.

evosteo

Learned a few years ago its not worth doing OT as you will only end up disappointed. Gov making 51/52% on what you then earn. Sickening. Try take TIL instead.

Absolutly no incentive to try earn a bit more than the norm.

Country is so backwards it's beyond belief

Kewreeuss

ok, fine.
I hope you had a good night's sleep anyway.

lawred2

Kewreeuss wrote: »

ok, fine.
I hope you had a good night's sleep anyway.

He's right...


Hmmm that's not what I quoted. Must have been one swift edit.

Kewreeuss

I had a look at the tax calculators for the UK and Ireland.
Looking at the salaries as units, ie 25000 units annually as salary, the take home pay in Ireland for a single person is greater than the UK, up until 45K units. After that someone who earns 50k units per year in the UK has a higher take home pay. This is straight up, no pension deductions, BIK or anything.
25k units in UK take home monthly pay is 1711.32, here is 1821
30k units in UK take home monthly pay is 1994.65, here is 2119.
This excludes any conversation about what you can buy with those units.
I suppose what you consider you are paying for with your taxes influences how you feel about paying taxes.

evosteo

Kewreeuss wrote: »

I had a look at the tax calculators for the UK and Ireland.
Looking at the salaries as units, ie 25000 units annually as salary, the take home pay in Ireland for a single person is greater than the UK, up until 45K units. After that someone who earns 50k units per year in the UK has a higher take home pay. This is straight up, no pension deductions, BIK or anything.
25k units in UK take home monthly pay is 1711.32, here is 1821
30k units in UK take home monthly pay is 1994.65, here is 2119.
This excludes any conversation about what you can buy with those units.
I suppose what you consider you are paying for with your taxes influences how you feel about paying taxes.

You will get more for your sterling in england than for your euro here in lreland. That like for like comparison is skewed. You could live a more comfortable life on 30k pounds compared 30k euros

More bang for your buck

DaveyDave

Sounds like people saying it's not worth it don't earn more than €35k...

Kewreeuss

That is not the point, as i mentioned in my posting.
The point is the percentage of your gross earnings that go in taxes and making a comparison with the UK which is very similar to us.
Bang for your buck is a whole other conversation and it very much depends on where you are spending your buck, particularly in the UK.

Kewreeuss

Davey, maybe they are saying it, but it's an odd one.

Why would you limit your income just to avoid paying a bit more tax?
Unless you are comfortable with what you have and aren't caught up in the wheel of more food, more clothes, bigger car, more holidays which is admirable and difficult to do in this society.

Seve OB

Kewreeuss wrote: »

Why would you limit your income just to avoid paying a bit more tax?

this.

just makes no sense.

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.
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but then i think about it. their FIS will be affected and god knows what other benefits they are claiming!!!!

isitworth

isitworth wrote: »

Basic pay: 1,237.56
Gross pay: 2025.86
Deductions: 586.76 (tax, prsi, asc/prd, usc, and pension + €40 to the credit union)
Net pay: 1,439.10

So excluding the untaxed subsidary of 135.58: for working the extra days over xmas I only got an extra €65.

I'm not really sure if I'm making heads or tails of this right.
Wtf was the point?

You need to figure out what you would have taken home without the O/T and do your sums then. Have a look back over your payslips and find one that's close enough to your basic pay for this week without any extras, if possible. then compare that one with your most recent one.

If that's not possible....€1,237 per fortnight works out @ just over €32k per year, if you were getting that every pay period.
For a single person with no kids earning that much, the take home would be just over a grand, €1,032 to be exact, or €516 per week.
Your take home is greater than that by €400, which is 80% of a week's wages. A little bit more than the €65 in your OP.

bladespin

DaveyDave wrote: »

Sounds like people saying it's not worth it don't earn more than €35k...

Seve OB wrote: »

this.

just makes no sense.

.
.
.
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but then i think about it. their FIS will be affected and god knows what other benefits they are claiming!!!!

I've heard this many times before, and in some ways it does make sense:

Overtime could be seen as extra hardship (less time to yourself etc etc) on top of your normal work, why would someone take on the extra hardship when someone else benefits more from it?

It's not about limiting your earning potential as such.

Not saying it's right but there you go.

mystic86

isitworth wrote: »

Hi all. going anon for this. This is going to be confusing so I'm hoping somebody here is good at maths.

Basically I was looking at my payslip and am pretty disgusted at how much I got taxed for working over the xmas period.

It was extremely busy over the two week xmas period.
I was asked to work the Saturday and Sunday before xmas, and also Christmas Day and Stephens day.
Lovely, double time for 3 of those days. I thought I'd be making a nice bit extra on top of my basic pay would make it worth it.

In total I worked 84 hours over two weeks

Basic pay: 1237.56
OT pay Double time: 95.20 for 3 hours
OT pay t+1/2: 68.18 for 3 hours.
Public holiday pay: 301.46 for 19 hours
Sunday pay: 174.53 for 11 hours
Untaxed subsidary for no breaks: 135.58 (this is not an xmas bonus)

Basic pay: 1,237.56
Gross pay: 2025.86
Deductions: 586.76 (tax, prsi, asc/prd, usc, and pension + €40 to the credit union)
Net pay: 1,439.10

So excluding the untaxed subsidary of 135.58: for working the extra days over xmas I only got an extra €65.

I'm not really sure if I'm making heads or tails of this right.
Wtf was the point?

What you have done there is said net pay of 1,439.10 minus 135.58 (subsidary) = 1,303.52, which is only 65.96 more than your normal basic pay....

Which is true, but is a pointless comparsion, since your basic pay is not your normal take home pay, basic pay is before deductions.

Apples with apples and all that.

Fann Linn

The most equitable tax system in the EU according to every media outlet yesterday.